In the summer of 2021, I got to see behind the scenes of conducting research studies. I was given the chance of being a part of a research team who studied shale rocks for the purpose of more efficient oil and gas extraction. Over the course of 8 weeks, I have analyzed data relating to different shale rock properties under different conditions. I also had to identify trends before producing graphics and writing conclusions for them. In the end, I have gained knowledge regarding the petroleum industry and developed skills that will hopefully assist me in conducting more research studies in the future.

One of our great achievements is being exchange students. Student exchange program in Malaysia gave us a chance to improve ourselves personally and professionally, it was like a turning point of our life. We became more independent, responsible, and open minded to other cultures.
During the session we are going to tell our story and share our experience which starts with a dream to study abroad and ended up with a memorable experience. It will include information about the application process, before and after departure, sharing our experience there with some photos and videos, finally what we gained and learned and how to better bring this experience into attention.

As a mechanical engineering student entering his senior year, I had the opportunity to be a part of the Halcon internship program. Being a very innovative company it provides an a-to-z solution to its clients, resulting in a very comprehensive and unique internship experience. As a part of the research and development team within the company, we were tasked with designing, modeling, and testing an actual project. We experienced all aspects of engineering in a professional environment which gave us insight into the engineering mindset. Through this experience, I found that this mindset is not only critical when trying to solve problems within the field, it likewise offers a very unique perspective into day-to-day dilemmas and life in general.

The coronavirus pandemic shook the world causing a tremendous amount of damage. However, one positive byproduct of it is the advancement of online learning platforms which allowed me to attend the Tsinghua Global Summer School 2021 without leaving my house. The virtual abroad semester was a meeting of hundreds of brilliant minds from across the globe. The main focus was to tackle global issues brought about by the COVID 19 pandemic as well as discussing the Sustainable Development Goals. The curriculum; which comprised of master classes and a hackathon, was an excellent tool in developing the necessary skills to face those global challenges.

During the study abroad, I worked with group of students from Colorado school of mines on two projects. The first one is energy saving project, we were trying with the ministry of energy in the UAE to find a way to reduce carbon foot print. The implemented solution was to have a smart meter in the house that take the consumption pattern and transmit it to utility and energy kiosk as well. Energy kiosk is an application that serves all energy needs, it track energy usage and push timely notifications in the case of heavy usage. The second project was sustainable aviation fuel. We were trying to find a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that caused by aviation. The implemented solutions were place blending mandate which creates demand and Wider policy cooperation in the geographical region around UAE can create a bigger market. Also runs a Voluntary passenger program where you can compensate offset your emissions by paying for SAF after your trip based on per passenger calculation.

In 2018 I was chosen to be the UAE’s representative in Boston, Massachusetts, The US. Along with my peers we spent a two weeks period in the University of Massachusetts in Amherst learning about essential sports components. Business, marketing and the human body. The ministry of education program ” the ambassadors program, estedad” has helped in exploring different cultures and stay connected with the world.

Joining Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (Junior Caregiver Program) summer volunteering program introduced me to many aspects of the clinical industry. Through it, I had the opportunity to volunteer at many clinical departments including eye, cardiovascular and emergency department. My experience in the emergency department is by far the most unforgettable. There, I witnessed the different cases CCAD received on a daily basis. Cases varied in their severity. From people breaking their toe to elders taking their last breaths. I also had the opportunity to talk on behalf of our batch (in our graduation ceremony) in front of executives from both CCAD and Mubadala.

I would like to share my eight-week remote internship experience at the Bio-robotics Institute of Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy. During this period, I specifically worked with the Neuro-Robotic Touch Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Calogero Oddo. The core concepts of this internship were learning about EEG signals, the standard 1020 electrodes placement system, independent component analysis, evoked potential response waveforms, time-frequency analysis, EEGLAB and ERPLAB extensions.
I worked on a project that investigated the changes in somatosensory neural activity upon the activation of tactile stimulation. The stimuli varied across pleasantness and unpleasantness of material. I was responsible for preprocessing the acquired EEG signals, extracting ERP waveforms, and analyzing peak amplitudes and latencies across fontal and central channels.

Many interns and trainees join an organization with the expectation that all the required knowledge and skills will be delivered to them directly without any effort. However, this is not the case majority of the time. During my internship experience, I had to follow a 2-way strategy utilizing the KSBs (knowledge, skills, and behavior) to fully benefit from my placement. The initial pathway I followed was adapting my behavior and attitude to gain more knowledge and skills. The final pathway was to utilize these gained skills and knowledge to build up my behavior and interaction in an actual work environment.

I had an internship with SolarShip inc. last summer, and I was working with the Peace Urban team. The Peace Urban 2021 primary goal is to help raise standards of living that directly or indirectly improve human safety, health, and wellbeing. Specifically, it aims at alleviating healthcare system congestion in Lusaka, Zambia. This solution, dubbed Project “Thanzi-Kwa-Onze” which is Nyanja (Zambian language) for Health-For-All, brings healthcare to the people rather than them moving to the hospital for it. Our solution combines airship technology with wifi to create a wifi zone for the communities to encourage e-Health (telemedicine) patronage thus minimizing hospital overload.

It is best learning experience in my life for the meantime. Studying virtually in a country that is far more than 14 hours from my home was interesting and full of knowledge. I had to deal with time differences between the United Arab Emirates and United State and adapt to the American teaching approach in just 6 weeks but it was not hard. With time I have friendships from all over the world and work with them in groups. All thanks to Khalifa University for giving me this unforgettable opportunity.

In this experiment, we have designed two micro-fluidic devices which will allow the separation of the micro size particles (0.27µm) from water. In one of the micro-fluid devices, a micro-vortex was created to generate the vortex via low flow rate thereby showing the significance of the flow rate, which affects the size and the efficiency of the vortex formation. While on the other micro-device, a channel was created having a pinched flow leading to a lateral channel that separates the particles from the fluid, in one of the channels most of the particles were observed with minimum fluid and in the other channel we observed only flow of the fluid without particles. After achieving the required results, our aim is to use the same Micro-fluid devices and consider Blood as our fluid which contains the red blood cells and plasma and hence to separate the red blood cells (RBC) from the plasma which is the fluid.

Katherine Lithgow is the Senior Educational Developer, Integrative & Experiential Learning with the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo in Canada. She facilitates experiential and integrative learning initiatives helping instructors across campus design and implement course and program level activities that help students integrate learning in academic, workplace, community, and social environments. She has over 20 years’ experience working with ePortfolios to help learners document their growth and development, and articulate, and showcase this to themselves and others. Her recent projects are in the areas of Student-Led Individually Created Courses, and Bridging the “Articulation of Skills” Gap.

I found value in experiential learning because it connects and completes the knowledge gained in the classroom. I interned at the Abu Dhabi Police Aviation for two months, and I recognized the importance of practical experience, especially in the Aerospace industry. I have the opportunity to learn and practice a variety of new skills related to my major during the internship by trained crew and officials. I’m excited to share my experience with the KU community as I believe it will impact other students.

We decided to take this opportunity to share our learning experience that has inspired us and made a difference in our life. The experience was the pre-medicine bridge program that happened May 19th 2019. It was a 6-week condensed program in preparation for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). The purpose of sharing this experience with others is to contribute to illustrating how hard work can eventually lead to success, and that with perseverance, goals and ambitions can be achieved.

Student teaching (in order to achieve a successful generation). Life is a continuous chain of experiences. These experiences are both good and bad but both help us live a more educated and productive life. For me, one of the greatest feelings in life is to feel proud of yourself after you work hard. One of these experiences that I feel proud of is when I presented my project that I was working on during high school in Think Science competition Series. And it got many interests, so I decided to implement the project with the help of some of the doctors at the UAE University. My project focused on using a new and clean source to generate electric power. Based on my research, I discovered that this exceeds the target set in the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, which aimed to provide 7% of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy sources by 2020 and 75% by 2050. Therefore, in this period, we are trying as much as possible to use new and clean elements to generate renewable energy. And that was my goal.